Process of treating nickel ores, &amp;c.



TE STATES PATENT FFICE.

iruoMAs JENKINS, or WEBSTER, NORTH CAROLINA, ASSIGNOR To WALTER I f s. ADAMS, or WAYNESVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA.

P-aoc-Ess.QFTREATING NICKEL ORES, 80G.

SPEGIEICATIOH forming part of Letters Patent No. 723,159, dated March 17, 1903.

J Application filed August 29, 1902. Serial No. 121,427. (No specimens.)

To all whom/it may concern:

Be it known that I,,THoMAs JENKINS, a citizen of the UnitedStates, and a resident of Webster, Jackson county, North Carolina,

5 haveinvented a newand useful Process of Treating Nickel Ores and other Nickeliferous Material, of which the following is a specification. 1

This invention relates to a process of treat- IO ing nickel ores and other nickeliferous material; and its main object isto provide a simple method of treating such material to convert the nickel present into a simple nickel salt suitable for use in the arts without fur- .15 ther treatment or readily convertible into me- ,tallic nickel, as may be desired, the two compounds most commonly used being, as is well known, the oxid and the sulfate of nickel.

Accordingto my present process the nickel- I bearing ore is subjected to any suitable chemical treatment for obtaining the nickel I compound in solution, and the nickel in solution is then precipitaed in the form of a nickel salt rich in oxygen and easily reducible .25 to the oxid of nickel, the present invention being in the nature of a modification of that described and claimed in my companion application, Serial No.- 121,426, filed August 29, 1902, in which I have set forth a process of 3o obtaining oxid of nickel by the oxidation of I 0 principal feature of this process as distinguished from that described in my companion application is the precipitation from the solution obtained from the nickeliferous ore or othenmaterial of a compound of nickel H 5 high in oxygen which may be easily reduced I f to. theoxid.

In carrying myinvention into effect I may take any suitable material, whether in the form of a matte or the natural ore-such, for

example, as the silicate garnieritefirst reducing the same to the proper size to enable to about twenty or thirty mesh and the pulverized material mixed with-a suitable solvent, which will ordinarily be concentrated sulfuric acid. After the masshas been propl erly digested it is thoroughly lixiviated with hot water. The acid solution is then separated from the residual ore and contains practically all the nickel content of the ore. I prefer to precipitate the nickel from this solution by addingthereto'oxalic acid or its chemical equivalent and heating the ore until the nickel present is thrown down as nickel oxalate, which, as is obvious, is a nickel salt rich in oxygen. This nickel oxalate should then be separated from the liquid by filtration, after which it may be collected, 79 washed, and heated in a suitable crucible or small furnace, a reducing heat being applied l for the purpose of burning out the oxygen and carbon from the oxalate until the oxalate is reduced to nickel oxid. It Will be 0bvious that the nickel oxid thus obtained may be converted into nickel sulfate, if desired,

by dissolving it in sulfuric acid and crystallizingthe nickel sulfate ontin the well-known manner. E0

An important feature of my present process is that after the separation of the nickel oxalate from the solution of nickeliferous material or ore the oxalic acid or oxalate remaining in the solution or filtrate from which nickel oxalate has been precipitated may be recovered and returned to the original acid solution of the nickel ore for precipitating the nickel content of a fresh portion of such solution. In order to accomplish this, I prefor to add to such filtrate calcium carbonate in the form of milk of lime, which precipitates calcium oxalate from the solution. This calcium oxalate may be broken up by adding sulfuric acid thereto, when calcium 5 sulfate will be precipitated and oxalic acid will remain in solution. This oxalic acid may be separated by decantation or filtration and afterward crystallized out and reused,

the process being, therefore, a substantially I00 that the present process, like that described in my companion application before referred to, is avery sim ple method for treating nickel ores to obtain directly the compounds of nickelwhich are most used in the arts and that this process is purely chemical and involves no electrolytic action, such as is characteristic of most of the processes in commercial use for extracting nickel from its ores.

What I claim is- 1. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said material'to the action of a suitable solvent, precipitating nickel fromsaid solution as a salt of nickel easily reducible to nickel oxid, and reducing said nickel salt to nickel oxid.

2. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said ma-,

terial to the action of asuitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as nickel oxalate, and converting said nickel oxalate into the oxid of nickel.

3. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said material to the action of asuitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as nickel oxalate, and subjecting said nickel oxalate to a reducing heat to convert it into nickel oxid.

4. The process of treatingnickelifero us material, which consists in subjecting said material to the action of a suitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as a salt of nickel easily reducible to nickel oxid, and recovering oxalic acid from the filtrate.

5. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting, the material to the action of a. suitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as nickel oxalate, reducing said nickel oxalate to nickel oxid, precipitating an alkaline oxalate from the filtrate, and recovering oxalic acid from said alkaline oxalate.

6. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said material to the action of a suitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as nickel oxalate, red ucing said nickel oxalate to nickel oxid, adding calcium carbonate to the filtrate to precipitate calcium oxalate, and recovering oxalic acid from said calcium oxalate.

7. The process of treating nickeliferous ma terial, which consists in subjecting said material. to the action of a suitable solvent, precipitating nickel from said solution as nickel oxalate, reducing said nickel oxalate to nickel oxid, adding calcium hydrate to the filtrate to precipitate calcium oxalate, and adding sulfuric acid to said precipitate to recover oxalic acid.

8. The process of treating nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said material to the action of a concentrated acid, lixiviating the mass with hot Water, precipitating nickel from the solution as nickel oxalate, and converting said nickel oxalate into the oxid of nickel.

9. The process of continuously obtaining nickel oxalate from nickeliferous material, which consists in subjecting said material to the action of a concentrated acid, lixiviating the mass with hot water, subjecting the so- 

